


Finding Macy's Place

by LeeMorrigan



Category: Charmed (TV 2018)
Genre: Books, F/M, Hacy, Harry has a good idea, Harry is a sweetheart, Hot Air Balloons, Macy needs a hug, Maggie agrees, Marisol is mentioned a bit, Mel ships it but doesn't want anyone to know she's a shipper, Mel thinks Macy needs new furniture, Neither can shop for Macy, Romance, Sisterhood, Sweet, Tea, Telepathy, Tender - Freeform, lightcatchers, maggie ships it, magic of ordinary days, roughly takes place in fall, takes place after s1, tea books n love, tooth rot inducing sweetness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-04 15:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20473430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeeMorrigan/pseuds/LeeMorrigan
Summary: Set after S1, Macy is still living with her sisters in what used to be their mother's room, still full of their late mother's furnishings. Maggie and Mel each take a stab at forcing Macy to buy new bedroom furniture, and Harry offers a suggestion. Deals with Maggie & Mel missing their mom, Macy learning to accept that she is part of a family now, and Harry being the wonderful sweetie that he often is, until Macy is ready to show off her new bedroom, give her sisters each a little gift to show she appreciates them, and have a serious conversation with Harry about those thoughts of his she overheard when she was the Source. Bit of a slow-burn, with Harry only sprinkled in the beginning & middle, but I promise Hacy goodness at the end.





	Finding Macy's Place

**Author's Note:**

> I do need to go through and watch the whole season again, before I really fire up the fanfiction machine, but this popped into my head on the drive home one day and wouldn't leave me alone till I wrote it. Mostly told from Macy's PoV, though there are bits with her sisters and Harry as well.
> 
> Trigger Warning: Mentions Macy & Maggie reading minds, characters discuss a charity for battered women and women who've been through medical treatment for life-threatening illness, mentions someone dying in an accident years ago, mentions loss/grief and dealing with the two, and that's about it. No gore, blood, bad guys, etc.

Macy smiled, listening to Maggie as she chattered on and on about this amazing store they were heading to. For the past month, her sisters had been on her case that she needed to get her own furniture for the bedroom that had once been their mother’s. Maggie and Mel had already helped clear it out, so it had all the photos, bottles of perfume, and such gone, allowing Macy plenty of room to put her clothes in the drawers and her own cosmetics on the dresser. However, both claimed that it was about time Macy truly made the room her own. Which is how she ended up walking through downtown, following Maggie to “the coolest furniture place in the state”.

“You’ll love it! You can get any bedding in like, any color, ever. And they’ve got a lot of stuff that is knock-off of really fancy, expensive brands. Plus, they’ve got really cool retro stuff. I got a lava lamp there last year.”

“I never noticed a lava lamp in your room?”

Maggie shook her head with a smile.

“I got it for Arabella, she’s a friend from high school. She really, really loves the 60s and 70s, so the lava lamp seemed right up her alley.”

“True.”

“Come on, it’s around the corner and down two blocks.”

Macy obediently followed Maggie until they reached the front door of Hideaway Bedding & More. The place made her think of a mashup of a clunky junk shop, a hipster art gallery, and a Crayola factory explosion. The walls were a shocking white with weird pictures, lights, curtains, and other items hanging almost as if they were edgy art, the floors were covered in rugs in every shade of neon, and furniture sat in haphazard groupings, scattered over the entire space. There was not a Bedroom section, then a Living room section, and a Kitchen section. A living room set would have a random rolling kitchen island in the middle and that would be next to a desk set that looked like it would be more at home in a Polly Pocket house, and next to that was a hammock struck between a beam and a small toy set to allow you to swing in your bedroom with a light-up palm tree as your lamp. All in all, the place was too scattered and disorganized for Macy to even begin to think of browsing through the selections.

“What do you think?”, Maggie asked, clearly hopeful of Macy’s approval. _Fake it till you make it_, she reminded herself.

“Very colorful. Where do you think we should start?”

Maggie did an excited little shuffle of a dance, before almost leaping off towards a bright blue living room set with a set of sunflower themed pillows. Macy let out a slow breath. This was going to be a _long_ shopping trip.

~*~*~*~*~

“I can’t believe you didn’t like anything! There was so much pretty stuff in there.”

Macy nodded, walking beside a dejected looking Maggie. After a couple hours, it had been clear to Maggie that they were not going to find anything for Macy. They did, however, find four living rooms, three bedrooms, 2 kitchens, and several odd pieces that Maggie would liked to have had.

“Not even a couple throw pillows or a bookshelf?”

Macy shook her head in the negative.

“Sorry.”

“No. I’m sorry. I picked out the place, sure that you’d find _something_.”

Macy reached, giving Maggie’s shoulder a light touch.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it. Shopping for another person’s furniture is always hard. Statistically, deciding which furniture to keep and what to get rid of, is one of the leading causes of break-ups among couples who have decided to move in together?”

“Really? I would have thought it would be finding out the guy snores like a chainsaw.”

“That might have been mentioned as another big cause.”

Both sisters chuckled at Macy’s small joke as they headed back to the house. It was not a terribly long walk, but by the time they arrived home, all Maggie could think about was a big lunch. She had skipped breakfast to study for a Math mid-term and she was starved.

“I’m gonna hit up the kitchen and make a salad. You want anything?”

“No. I have some reports to read. Might start some tea and then get to it.”

“Work. Work. Work.”

Macy stood tall, smiling a fake-smug smile.

“With pride!”, she joked, before heading over to start the kettle for some tea.

“How did bedroom shopping go?”, Mel asked as she walked into the kitchen, dropping her bag onto a chair as if it had offended her ancestors earlier.

“Guhhh.”, Maggie growled.

“Elegant phrasing. Glad the tutoring is paying off.”

That earned the middle sibling a tongue being stuck out at her by the youngest, while the eldest sibling shook her head with a smile at the antics of her younger siblings.

“I take it then, that you didn’t get a bed or anything?”

“Nope.”

“Well, next weekend, I’m taking you to Alaric’s Attic.”

Macy looked up, a bit confused. Somehow, she had not pictured her sister shopping at a place with that kind of name. Willow’s Trunk or even Grandma’s Treasure Wagon, or something truly weird and new-age sounding, but not something that sounded vaguely British, that she would have expected from Harry.

“They have all sorts of stuff there, it kind of has a World Traveler vibe. You’ll find something there, I’m sure. Alright, onto serious business, who else needs some margaritas and nachos?”

Maggie almost did a dance right there at the fridge.

“ME! ME! HELL YES, ME!”

Both elder sisters shared a small chuckle as everyone continued their work togethers their respective lunches.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mel walked with Macy, a conspiratory smile on her lips and a confidence in her step. Sometimes Macy wished she had Mel’s confidence to just charge forward in life, while fighting demons, and in going after what made her happy.

“Last time I went, I swore I was going to break my credit card, and I rarely have that problem.”

“I imagine.”

“The sales guys aren’t pushy though, so you can have time to really consider and look around without being bothered.”

Macy nodded, finding that thought comforting. Sometimes having a sales person there made her feel as if she were under some microscope. Then she felt pressured to buy something, and despite being aware of the tactic, it still worked on her more often than not.

They arrived to find that the place was exactly what Mel had described. The sales people all sat in a little lounge looking spot in the back, the walls were solid black and the floors some sort of squishy tile that Macy guessed to recycled rubber or some sort, and the furniture ran in rows. A bedroom row, a living room row, a study row, kitchen row, and so forth. Lamps and other accessories lined the edges of the room, and the walls were covered in exotic looking artwork from masks that looked like zebras and lions to mirrors with colorful little mosaics as frames.

As they walked, Macy noticed something else about the furniture. Almost all of it was made from anything but wood. There was bamboo with a large price tag and a note about how the bamboo was ethically harvested, then bamboo-hemp blend sheets with a purple leopard pattern laid overtop of it. Another bedroom suite looked as if it were made from recycled bottles that had been turned into frames for the bed, bookshelves, and such. Macy didn’t mind saving the planet and ethical harvesting, though the look of the furniture seemed very much what a wealthy college student might get to feel good about insisting he or she got brand new ‘grown up’ furniture because they were over 18 now.

“What do you think?”, Mel asked with an expectant look. She clearly thought she had found the perfect spot for Macy to find her bedroom suite.

“There’s so much to look at.”

“Yeah. Got something for every style, and all of it is ethical and vegan. Even Maggie can’t object to anything in here, well except the artwork by the one New Yorker who got his stuff in here. They have a smaller room in the back with local artists, including the guy originally from New York, who likes to paint dark fantasy stuff.”

“Wow. Might have to take a look back there, at all the paintings, before we leave.”

“Don’t worry, I planned to take you for a walk-through.”

Macy smiled over at her sister.

“Thanks.”

Mel linked arms with Macy, in a somewhat rare show of physical affection for her elder sibling, and tugged her gently towards a fake-leather fainting sofa. It was lovely, though the solid black fake-leather with the glass-looking frame just was not to Macy’s taste. She would look through the place though, as there might well turn out to be some gem that caught her eye.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Mel and Maggie sat enjoying some vegan-friendly ice cream in the back yard, discussing a shared concern. Macy. Specifically, getting Macy to find things that made their mom’s old room into Macy’s room.

“I have a theory.”, Maggie said as she went to scoop more chocolate chip cookie dough flavored ice cream out of her container.

“Shoot.”, Mel said around a mouthful of black cherry.

“I think we’re pushing Mel too hard, because we miss mom.”

Mel arched an eyebrow.

“Come again?”

Looking up, Maggie pointed with her spoon as if conducting a symphony.

“We love mom, and we grieved, but when we go into the room to talk to Macy, for a split second, it’s still _mom’s_ room. We still see that same bed she had longer than she had us, that same dresser with photos of the two of us on it, little shiny perfume bottles that don’t look that different from mom’s, and even the same curtains. For a split second, or two, we’re in Mom’s room. We’re looking for Mom. It seems like everything this past year has just been a terrible dream when it comes to her. So, we want Macy to change it, NOW, so we can come in and see everything that makes it Macy’s room instead of Mom’s.”

Mel considered, thoughtful, as she finished off the most recent bite of ice cream.

“It has merit. It’s also a hypothesis, not a theory. You need evidence and tests for a theory.”

Maggie grinned.

“Macy rubbing off on you?”

“A little. Osmosis. You should Google it.”

“Haha, I know what it means, but anyway, what do you think? My hypothesis on the money.”

Mel nodded, scooping up another bite with her spoon.

“Definitely. I also wonder if we might be pushing her to do that because it’s permanency. She isn’t a guest staying in the only room we have to spare. She is here to stay, if she gets her own furniture in there.”

Maggie nodded, her spoon still in her mouth from her current bite of dessert.

Mel continued, “And, maybe, we both know Macy spent most of her childhood at boarding schools and all that, so maybe we want her to have furniture that is HERS, we want her to have a room that is HERS. Not to be occupying space that is temporarily housing her, but for the space to BELONG to her.”

“I hadn’t thought of that.”

Meanwhile, Macy stood inside the kitchen, cutting vegetables for the omelet she intended to have for breakfast tomorrow. She had an early meeting and would need to eat and have left before her sisters were even awake yet. She also needed some time to think, as she had to give a presentation at the meeting and she had not decided exactly how she wanted to tackle the budget issue she was to talk about.

“Those smell wonderful.”

She turned, finding Harry standing near her shoulder, looking over the orange and red peppers she was dicing. He looked quite handsome in his pale blue shirt and midnight blue slacks, brown dress shoes polished enough to check your makeup in the reflection, and the collar left undone a bit to show off his neck. Macy smiled up at him.

“I got them at the Farmer’s Market with Mel yesterday. Here.”, she handed him a thin slice she had just cut. Biting in, she could hear the crunch between Harry’s teeth as he bit into the ripe veggie.

“Good?”

He nodded before swallowing.

“Delicious. What are you making?”

He moved over to where his apron hung on a hook near the oven, expertly tying it behind his back while he waited for her answer.

“Oh, um, and omelet. I have a super early meeting tomorrow, so I won’t be able to have one of your amazing breakfasts.”

“You could have just said so, I would have made something for you to have so you didn’t have to get up quite so early, and could grab another ten minutes of sleep. It wouldn’t be any trouble.”

“It’s alright, I don’t mind.”

“What’s the meeting about?”, Harry inquired as he moved over to begin prepping for dinner.

“Budget cuts they proposed last week. I have to defend the cuts I want to make and counter the cuts they have suggested.”

“What do they want you to cut?”

“Training reimbursement, uniforms and cleaning of them, some maintenance, and some of the testing we do- it could be sent to DC to a facility there, but then it takes almost a month for the results to come back on the Class C stuff, 6 weeks for the Class B, and the Class D stuff gets lost in the mail half the time. I would give them some of the reimbursement training, if they agreed to give everyone two more days a year where they are paid without coming into work, so that way they could sit at home and watch some of the seminars so we wouldn’t have to reimburse for travel, hotels, books, and conference fees and could just plug everyone into these cheaper online ones that are available. And cleaning, we could maybe work out a deal with the local hospital that we could drop our things off with theirs to be cleaned, and then the bulk would allow them to negotiate for a better rate with the cleaning company.”

She looked up to see Harry was still intently listening to her as she rattled on. Macy could feel a slight blush creeping up her neck and cheeks. She scrunched her face, looking away as she wanted to smack herself.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ramble.”

“I did ask, and I don’t mind to listen.”

“No,” Macy waved a hand, “I shouldn’t be taking advantage of you being our Whitelighter so you kind of HAVE to listen to us like a Guidance Councilor, and let us whine to you all the time.”

Harry fixed her with a Look, his gaze coming up almost through his eyebrows at her as his head tipped slightly forward.

“Macy, I asked and I listened, and neither were done in service to my oaths as your Whitelighter. I inquired and I engaged because I care about you.”, he offered a small smile, then seemed to get a bit awkward on her in his adorable, British way.

“I’m your friend, Macy. I would hope you did not think that I only listen or do things, because of some sort of sense of obligation towards my magical wards for whom I am the Whitelighter.”

Nodding, Macy agreed. Sometimes in an effort to push away what she heard in his head, and to ignore her own feelings on the subject of Harry Greenwood, she convinced herself that she misinterpreted the inner musings of a loyal, caring, compassionate Whitelighter, who at the time she read his thoughts, had been in some serious overdrive about trying to save the day and his Charmed Ones.

“Well how about you? How was your day, Harry?”

He offered her that warm smile that she swore had the effect of temporarily turning her insides into jelly. Or ‘goo’, as Maggie would say.

“Not as dire. Mostly I babysat the students for Professor Klinge, since he was at the doctor’s office with his partner.”

The two of them continued to talk as they prepared the food together in the kitchen. They worked well together, and side by side, so the time seemed to fly by as they went about the kitchen. Macy did not mind one bit, as it allowed her to have a conversation that did not make her chest tight or her head spin. She had no need to hide anything about Magic, wondering about her mom, worrying about misstepping with her sisters, or mentioning Galvin around anyone who would think she might fall apart if they mentioned him. With Harry, she could just be Macy.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Macy woke the next morning, she went downstairs to the kitchen to pack up her lunch as her coffee worked on turning from Water to Caffeine. She grabbed the smoothie she had made for herself to have as a snack after the meeting and she had made up a homemade fruit cocktail with a chicken wrap for lunch, then she reached for the omelet she intended to scarf before she left. Sitting on the top was a handwritten note in precise, fine cursive.

_Macy,_

_ You will do wonderfully today at the meeting. Head up, don’t lock your knees, and remember that this is YOUR lab. No one can boss you in YOUR lab. Also, if you have time this week, you may want to check out Old Mill Furniture. They are a bit eclectic, yet I feel certain you will find pieces there to your liking. They have new, reproduction, gently used, and refurbished items of all kinds from rocking chairs and extra-large rugs to iron frame beds and oil lamps._

_Yours,_

_ Harry Greenwood_

Macy smiled down at the note. Harry really was the best. She slid the note into the back of her briefcase she had all her notes and handouts organized in, then she went back to make her coffee so she could have it with her omelet. There was a morning meeting she had to kick butt at, and it wasn’t going to happen decaffeinated and hungry.

After her breakfast, Macy rushed out of the house and to the University, where she was able to win most of the fight. Then she worked in the lab till her new boss told her to head home an hour early, in light of how much earlier she had come in for the meeting and the lack of anything large to work on that he needed her there to oversee. Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, she headed out to walk home. It was a nice day and she did not feel like waiting for the bus.

It did not take her long before she was on a street she rarely walked on in the daytime to see the businesses open. Generally, if she was in this area, it was to pick Maggie up from work when she worked past the hours the bus was operating. Or once, when she met Galvin for drinks. It looked different in the daylight. More alive and bustling with activity in and around the shops, the brick walls looked less intimidating, the large display windows of the shops were uncovered and full of things to look at, and many of the little places were mom and pop shops she likes of which had taken quite a hit in the past 20 years.

Macy rounded a corner drugstore to see a shop she had never before noticed. Old Mill Furniture Company. She smiled. The very store Harry had said suggested in his note this morning. She still couldn’t believe her left her that note on her lunchbox. In school, some of her friends and classmates would find little notes tucked into a roll of socks or in the back of their suitcase. She had never once had such a note. Those were treasures in her eyes.

“Alright.”, she muttered pleasantly to herself as she changed direction and went down a different street, up to Old Mill. The exterior was much the same as about half the buildings in the area. Three-story, brick, about a hundred years old or more, with large display windows, an indented front door with a transom, with an ornate door handle that was a step above what the neighbors on either side sported. Macy went in and was instantly blown away.

Down the far left, bedroom suits lined up beautifully with some cast iron frame and others with heavy wooden frames, then there was a row of dining room furniture with beautiful wood tables and chairs with carved backs ranging from simple to ornate. Left of center, they had lined up study-type furniture with wingback chairs and bookshelves that had been expertly decorated with books and antique brick-a-brack. Straight down the center was living room suites with a range of colors, styles, materials, and sizes, then to the right a bit was a row of unique pieces like benches and rocking chairs. Further to the right, rugs and wall tapestries were hung on racks with lights expertly placed to show them at their best and keeping them quite aways off from the windows. On the right-hand wall, windchimes, globes, light-catchers, and other adornments sat on little shelves covering the whole wall and running around the corner to cover part of the back wall. It was so full of lovely things, each full of character, and Macy had no idea where to start.

An older woman, her once solid black hair now pulled into a braid that had streaks of snow white scattered through it, came up to Macy’s side. Macy would have put the woman in her mid-50s, though she walked with a confidence that Macy suspected came from another decade or so of life experience than her appearance suggested. Her name tag read Ellen.

“Hello, may I help you today?”

“Maybe. I’m looking for a bedroom suite.”

The woman’s kind smile widened a bit as she nodded.

“Oh, well we have several. Is there anything in particular you like? Wood frames, sleighbed style, or something with a trundle perhaps?”

“Well, I have the master bedroom in a pretty old, big, lovely house that belonged to my mother and her mother before her. I uh… I moved in, a few months ago, and I think it’s time I got my own furniture instead of sleeping in the stuff my mother left behind.”

Ellen’s face shifted, the empathy clear.

“Well, allow me to give you a tour of our offerings? If this is a master bedroom, you’ll probably want something with a dresser and a mirrored hutch. Or perhaps a nice bench for the base of the bed, to sit on when you are putting your shoes on in the morning, and a large dresser with a nice mirror.”

Macy nodded, listening. Pretty soon, she had found a bed that had come from an estate sale and was mostly done with the refurbishing process. The only thing needed was a clear-coat over the beautifully re-stained wood. It was almost 80 years old with a four-poster bed that sat a good deal higher than any bed she had ever owned before with a curved headboard that reminded her of the one in her grandmother’s guest room. It came with a desk and chair, a dresser, a full-length mirror, a nice trunk with a quilted top to place at the foot of the bed, and a pair of nightstands to place on either side of the bed. Macy figured she could put the desk where Marisol had kept her makeup table and little seat, everything else would replace Marisol’s pieces.

As Macy was waiting for Ellen to get the paperwork regarding delivery and warranties on the stain and other refurbishing work, she wandered over to the side wall with all the lightcatchers, windchimes, lamps, and paperweights. It all looked so lovely, she had to have a closer look. Then, she found a section of lightcatchers that were handmaid by a local artist who worked with stained glass. Two, in particular, had caught her attention. One looked like a lightening storm fading with a rainbow coming out in it’s wake, the other had a beautiful flock of butterflies in an array of colors. She smiled. Mel and Maggie would love them.

Macy quickly but carefully pulled the two items from the rack they hung from, then noticed a third lightcatcher. This one was of a hot air balloon with beautiful purple, yellow, green, and blue chunks of color to the balloon and an off-white basket at the bottom. She had always loved hot air balloons, ever since one of her teachers showed her some pictures of historical hot air balloons over the last century and a half, then she checked out some books her teacher’s best friend had written on the subject.

Ellen returned a few minutes later, and Macy signed a few pieces of paper, then waited for Ellen to return with the last item she would have to sign before they could ring her up for the whole order. As Macy waited, she spotted one last thing on the wall of decorations. A glass paperweight that looked like a scene from a London street going on inside. It made her think of snowglobes and the ships in bottles, where you could look at them from most any direction and find something to appreciate about the scene inside.

“The bed with the desk, chair, mirror, nightstands, trunk, and dresser. Is there anything else you would like to add? We have a beautiful selection of rugs, quilts made by local quilting artists, and some nice lamps that you may like to use with the desk.”

Macy turned with a smile.

“Actually, I found some lightcatchers and a paperweight.”

Ellen’s kind smile returned.

“They are lovely, Macy. I’ll go get you some tissue paper and little boxes to put them in, then we can total you up and double check the delivery details before you head home.”

“That would be great, thank you.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maggie and Mel were laughing at a corny joke Mel had read off her phone, from her friend Jasmine in Colorado, as they headed up the street to the house. It had been a long week and both of them were ready for the weekend ahead. They had planned a marathon of some 90s shows they grew up on, along with some ice cream and pizza. They had every intention of inviting Macy and Harry to join, once they were all home to talk. Yet, something interrupted their good humor. A moving van.

“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”, Mel questioned.

“Unless this is a shared hallucination, yes.”

“Why is there a moving van in front of our house?”

“Let’s go ask them.”

Both charged forward, Mel ready to tear someone a new one and Maggie confused about why someone would prank them with a moving van. Then they saw something that made everything clearer. Their mother’s bed, broken down into the pieces, the mattress shortly behind, all being loaded into the moving van.

“Macy.”, Mel pronounced.

“Guess her search for some new furniture was successful. Come on, let’s see what she got!”, Maggie exclaimed as she yanked Mel along with her by the wrist.

They side-stepped the team of moving men as they headed into the house, where they found first Harry in the kitchen carrying a box of stuff, then Macy coming down the stairs with a similarly stuffed box of items. Mel looked around at the moving men, their van, and the dresser they were carrying down as she stood in the edge of the living room. Maggie looked around, trying to see if there was anything of the new furniture around to look at.

“Your home!”, Macy said with a breathy, cheerful tone.

“You finally got new furniture?”, Maggie asked with a huge smile.

“Yes. But before I take you upstairs to look at it, I have a question.”

“Shoot.”, Mel answered.

“I didn’t feel right about just deciding what to do with our mother’s bedroom suite. I felt like it wasn’t just-my decision. I’ve got a coworker who will let me take it to his garage for a couple days till I can arrange a climate-controlled storage unit, or there is a charity I thought about sending it to. They have been around for a few years, they help women who are single moms trying to get back on their feet financially, after leaving abusive relationships or when they’ve had a long-term illness.”

“Tessa’s Angels.”

Macy looked at Mel, surprised Mel seemed to know straight away, the name of the place. Mel just smiled and Maggie looked a bit teary-eyed but happy.

“What?”, Macy asked, sure she had missed a memo.

“Mom used to help out at Tessa’s Angels all the time. One of the three co-founders was an old friend of mom’s and mom helped her when she had cancer in her 30s, and had to quit her job, was too sick to take care of her kids, and was almost bed-ridden for about a year. When she got better, she talked with two other women, one had been a friend she made in Chemo, the other was a buddy from college who had become a social worker. They thought they ought to set the place up and they’d help women in these tight spots where they slip through the cracks of anything else in place that might have helped. The two who had been in Chemo, they had a friend who used to drive women to chemo, helped at her church, was a coach of a couple little league teams, used to sit with elderly widows when their families couldn’t afford a nurse and didn’t have someone available in the family to sit with their grandmas, and stuff like that, named Tessa. Right before they were going to open their charity, their friend Tessa was killed in a freak accident while on vacation with her family in Florida, so they decided to name the place after her.”

Macy was taken aback.

“Wow. I had no idea.”

Mel shrugged a shoulder, attempting to hide that her eyes were almost as watery as Maggie’s.

“No way you would have.”

Harry walked up then, smiling at the three.

“I suppose the choice is made then.”

Macy, Mel, and Maggie nodded in unison.

“Tessa’s Angels is getting Marisol’s bedroom.”, Mel said.

“I’ll go tell the moving men.”, Harry offered, allowing the girls a moment alone.

“I’m so glad you guys didn’t mind me wanting to donate our mother’s stuff.”

Maggie leaned, hugging Macy’s side as Macy balanced the box of stuff on her opposite hip.

“Macy, knowing you wanted to do this with her furniture, would have made mom super-happy. She had been talking about getting a new bed at one point and had said if she did, she’d donate her current set to Tessa’s. That way it would get a new life with someone who would appreciate having it, she would feel less guilty about getting a new set when there wasn’t anything wrong with the old set, and her buddies at Tessa’s would be able to offer something nice to a client they were helping.”

The sisters hugged, then Macy put her box down on the coffee table and smiled up at her sisters. She had a couple surprises upstairs besides the new furniture, and her patience for seeing Mel and Maggie’s reactions, was wearing thin.

“Want to see my new furniture?”

Maggie almost vibrated.

“YES!”

Leading the way, Macy headed up to her room with Maggie then Mel trailing behind. When they got to her room, Macy felt uncharacteristically theatrical. She blamed Maggie’s excited enthusiasm. Grasping the door handle, Macy grinned up at her sisters, a bit nervous though mostly excited.

“Alright, here we are.”

She pushed the door open to reveal the pale furniture, the mattress in place, though the sheets and curtains still needed to be brought out. Maggie burst into the room, stopping in the center to spin around a bit and look it all over. Mel walked in slowly, taking it in. Macy waited at the door, nervous that her sisters would hate what she had done to their mom’s room.

“Macy, this is beautiful. Did you get new curtains and stuff, too?”, Maggie asked.

“No. I found some in the hall closet that are the right size. They have a geometric pattern and are in shades of purple, blue, green, and gray. I really like the look of them, if you two don’t mind me using them?”

Mel inclined her head, giving Macy a bit of a look. One she could not easily read.

“Macy, this is just as much your home as ours. That means everything, from the coaches in the living room and the cups in the kitchen, and yes, the linens in the hall closets, are as much yours to use as ours. Mom kept tons of extra linens in the hall closets, some were her mother’s old ones, some she got at yard sales, some she bought at school when they were benefiting a charity she liked, and some she got at clearance sales because she liked the color or she wanted to make a fort in the living room with us because we were expecting a nasty storm.”

Macy hugged her sister as Maggie continued to look around. Then Maggie stopped, curiously peering at the mattress. Specifically, at the two gift-wrapped packages on the bed.

“What are those?”

Walking over, Macy pulled the one in peach paper to hand to Maggie and the one in purple to hand to Mel. That left the one in just the white cardboard box, still in the middle of her bed.

“Here. I saw these and I thought the two of you would like them.”

Mel got hers open first, finding the storm and rainbow lightcatcher. She held it up, seeing how brightly colored the rainbow was an how the lightening bolt in the storm had a gleam to it since it was pearlized. Maggie got hers open second, retrieving the beautiful bounty of butterflies to hold up, catching some light from the window.

“These are beautiful!”, Maggie almost whispered.

“They are, Macy.”, Mel concurred.

“I’m glad you two like them. They just seemed… well, they seemed you.”

Maggie rushed up to give Macy a hug.

“Thank you, but you didn’t have to.”

“I know, but I wanted to.”

Mel smiled over at her elder sister.

“I’m going to put this in my bedroom window so I can see it in the morning when I first get up.”

Maggie nodded, “Mine is going on my mirror. I read a thing yesterday about butterflies and self-esteem. It said how butterflies are pretty much universally recognized as one of the most beautiful things in nature, but they can’t actually see themselves so they have no idea how beautiful they are- and how sometimes people can be like that. This will remind me to think about that when I’m looking in the mirror to get ready for the day or coming back after a bad day.”

“Well, you two better get to it. I’ve got to put all my stuff back in, get the bed spread on, and I need to get my books I put down in the living room. Then we’ve got dinner!”

Maggie smiled, then walked out, Mel shortly behind her. Mel lingered in the doorway a moment, watching as Macy pulled out some books from the one box she had set aside, and placing them on the middle shelf of the desk. Macy was finally making the space her own, and Mel could not have been more glad. She had worried Macy did not truly feel at home with them, and hearing that she still felt the need to ask permission before using sheets from a common closet, made Mel remember they still had a long way to go towards making their sister feel at home. And when Macy occasionally slipped and referred to Marisol as being Mel and Maggie’s mom, instead of saying ‘our mom’, she worried that they might never get her fully comfortable and integrated into the Vera-family. This evening, she figured this furniture was a large step in the right direction. Smiling at Macy busily getting the place in order, Mel left to go hang the lightcatcher and check to make sure Maggie was doing homework and not on Instagram.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry did not make it home until nearly 8:30, as he had his Office Hours and then had covered an evening class for Prof. Klinge, as his partner’s abdominal pain had turned out to be appendicitis. Harry didn’t blame the man for wishing to stay by his partner’s side. In Klinge’s place, Harry would do no less. However, that had meant he would miss dinner with his three favorite witches and would also miss the big reveal of the new bedroom to see if Mel and Maggie liked what Macy had chosen.

So far, Macy had been careful not to mention that Harry had told her about Old Mill, and he was glad for it. Mel and Maggie had each been so sure they had the perfect place for their sister to find her bedroom suite, that perhaps it was better to let them think Macy had stumbled across the shop she got her suite from, rather than having her sisters know that Harry had been the one to suggest it. He had told the moving men earlier, when Harry had stopped by for a few minutes to hastily pack up a lunch to have during his Office Hours, then had promptly left after passing along the information about where they were to deliver Marisol’s old furniture to make way for Macy’s new- refurbished furniture.

Once inside, Harry caught the smell of cinnamon, cream, batter, and pumpkin. He ducked his head in the kitchen to find Maggie and a friend eating ice cream from the local frozen yogurt place. He offered a quick smile to Maggie before heading back to the living room, where Mel was asleep on the couch with her headphones on and her tablet displaying a screensaver from where it lay in her lap. Harry quickly judged her position would not result in a sore neck or arm in the morning, and decided to lay a throw over her legs and arms to ensure she did not grow cold while she slept. Maggie would likely wake her soon enough with a loud laugh or by shaking her to tell her to go to bed.

He decided that, on his way to the attic, he would pop his head into Macy’s and see if she needed anything and if she had liked her suite as much in her room as she did at the store. He could speak from personal experience about the wanting sometimes being better than the having, to quote Mr.Spock. As such, Harry headed up the stairs and then segwayed over to Macy’s bedroom. Two quick raps let her know he was there, as Maggie kept knocking till someone answered and Mel banged hard four times.

“Just a second!”

A second later, the door flew open to reveal Macy in a pair of satin-looking sleep pants and matching purple top. The color looked lovely on her. Then again, Harry was fairly certain that everything Macy wore looked lovely on her.

“Harry, how did the coverage go? Did they let you have time to eat?”

“Not bad, actually. Met a few new students who had never been in any of my classes and weren’t my advisees. And I did have time to eat the lunch you helped pack up for me, thank you.”

“I’m glad. Can you come in for a minute?”

“Uh…sure.”, he stumbled verbally, before following Macy into her room.

While she walked over to her nightstand on the far side of the bed, Harry looked around. The curtains were a pale purple with little green stems holding up white and darker purple tulip-looking flowers, along the bottom hems. The bedspread on top all the sheets, matched the pretty curtains, but the sheets below had a very mathematical looking pattern with chunks of color in vibrant greens, brilliant blues, deep purples, and shimmering pewter-grey. Somehow, it all held together and was quite lovely. He also noticed a lightcatcher in the window, in the shape of a hot air balloon. It was as colorful as the bedspread, though it had more yellow to it than anything else in the room.

Macy came back a couple seconds later, holding out a little box gift-wrapped in a pale green tissue paper. It looked about the size to hold a coffee mug. When she held it out, she smiled.

“It’s heavy, careful.”

Following her direction, he made sure to have a supportive hold before taking it from Macy’s hand. It was heavy, indeed. Not a mug then. Carefully, Harry undid the tissue paper to reveal a white cardboard box. He slid the top off to look inside. It was a glass paperweight with something inside the glass. Gingerly, he pulled the paperweight out to look at it more closely in the light. There was a scene inside, with so much detail that he could tell what he was looking at. A street in London with the little British cars, traffic signs, and shop windows as people walked about.

“Macy, this is beautiful!”

“I wanted to thank you for telling me about Old Mill. If you hadn’t recommended it, I wouldn’t have gone in when I saw it the other day. And you wrote me that nice note, I just… I felt like saying ‘Thank you’.”

“You didn’t have to, but I appreciate this, Macy. It’s beautiful!”

She smiled, her cheeks coloring. Harry tore his eyes to the paperweight to stop staring and making things creepy. It had been awkward for them a couple times since she read his thoughts during those turbulent days of her being the Source. Harry blamed himself entirely. He should have been paying more attention in the moment, have been more alert to governing his thoughts when he was around her, and he should have been more alert about possibly upsetting Macy now that she had gotten the unwanted glimpse.

“I know just the spot on my desk for this.”, he offered cheerfully.

“Good.”

For a moment, they both stood awkwardly. Harry couldn’t take it and he started to talk, only for Macy to have the same idea.

“Thank you.”, he said.

“I wanted to talk.”, she rushed through.

Harry tilted his head, considering.

“Pardon?”, he asked.

Macy let out a long sigh.

“I overheard what you were thinking. How you wanted to just hold me tight, teleport me somewhere that no one would ever bother me again, and then your thoughts strayed to the idea of being marooned on some island with me, all alone, and what we might do there, kissing under the moonlight and walking hand in hand down the beach in the afternoons. It was a beautiful, sweet daydream, and I made you feel as if I had taken a bullwhip to you when I saw it in your head. I’m sorry.”

Harry waved it off, as he set the paperweight back onto the bed.

“You weren’t entirely yourself. Please, don’t feel troubled over it.”

She fidgeted a bit, shuffling a little in place, her eyes anywhere but on him.

“At first, I didn’t think about it. Couldn’t. Galvin, the different timelines, all of it. It was just too much and it didn’t leave room to think about anything else. Some days, I think the only reason I brushed my teeth was muscle memory.”

Harry could understand, given what she had been through in such a short span of time.

“Then, as everything else calmed down, cleared up, and faded into the past, there were a couple things that just wouldn’t fade. One of them was how, no matter what I did to change time, you were always there. Always. How you could have stopped Mel and Maggie from trying to help me, but you didn’t – you helped them instead. You fought for me.”

She offered a sincere, small, shy smile.

“I thought about how gentle you had been with me, unobtrusive and supportive. Hovering on the edge, just in case I needed you. Even how you offered to go with me to check on Galvin, when he was dating someone else and I suspect you had inklings of the feelings I caught a glimpse of later. I thought about when we had tea together, when you have spent all night looking up spells or facts in books with me in the attic, and when I needed some dance lessons so you stepped in to make sure I didn’t make a fool of myself in front Galvin or the benefactors or my coworkers, and how since I overheard your thoughts about me, you have done everything possible to give me my space and to keep me from thinking you had any expectations.”

Macy stepped closer, just into the very edge of his personal space. Her dark eyes were direct, searching, as they met his gaze.

“If you had Maggie’s powers for a few minutes, over the last few weeks, I think you might have managed to find out you’re not the only one who harbors some feelings you haven’t acted on or spoken of.”

“Macy,” he started but she stopped him.

“_Please_, let me say this or I’ll never get it out.”

She waited. He gave a nod. There was no way he could have denied her.

“Harry, I care about you. Not just as a friend, as something… a lot more than a friend. Harry, I… I care a lot about you, and… I’d like us to maybe… see it through. To give this, between us, a shot. If you’re willing?”

He felt as if he were dreaming. Or spinning. Maybe falling from some towering height.

“Macy, relationships between Whitelighters and Witches are forbidden.”

“I know. Mel told me, about Jada, and I was there for the backlash with the Elders learning about you and Charity, but… Mel said it right, we make our own rules now, Harry. We can’t bend knee to them, knowing how flawed their thinking can be and how self-interested their rules can be. But if you truly don’t want to, I will understand.”

He reached, catching her hand as she was about to step away from him. The feel of her slightly chapped, very warm skin against his palm, nearly made him freeze up. He had not touched her, not once, since the day he led her out by the arm from the cemetery. He had made a point not to touch her. Not because he feared she could read his thoughts again, as he knew she could not. Instead, he feared she would not need telepathy to be able to read him when he touched her.

“Harry?”

“I want it, too.”

Her smile was small, tentative. Harry came closer, aware that Macy was relatively new to adult romantic relationships, and well aware that aside from Charity, he was no Casanova with a mile-long scroll of lovers to his credit. Macy leaned closer, her eyes moving between his and lower, to his lips. Harry found he had much the same attention span, passing between admiring the depth and warmth of her dark eyes and the inviting fullness of her soft looking lips.

“Harry?”

“Yes?”

She smiled nervously. Harry leaned closer, giving her one last chance to back away or tell him to stop. She did neither. Harry leaned, seeing her eyes close just before their lips connected, a full charge of fireworks going off in his head, heart, and stomach as they kissed, gently and slowly. He felt Macy’s free hand move to the front of his shirt, sliding up and over to his shoulder, the warmth seeping right into his marrow. His free hand moved to the small of her back, gently pulling her closer, as if Harry feared a lack of contact might let her change her mind. He never wanted to stop kissing her. She tasted of strawberries, tea, and something unique to her. She was intoxicating to his senses and he was sure he could never go back to pretending now. He had come too far to ever be ‘just her friend’ in the future.

They parted for air and Macy let her head fall forward to rest on the shoulder opposite to where her hand lay. Harry turned his head, allowing his nose to nestle against her temple. This felt so right to him.

“What now?”, she asked.

Harry thought for a second.

“Do you want to tell Mel and Maggie?”

“Not yet. I want to have this just a little longer. Not that I want to hide it!”, she added.

Harry smiled into her hairline.

“It’s alright. It’s new.”

“I’m half afraid this is a dream and I’ll wake up to find we’re still fighting Fiona and that I’m still the Source, causing us to shift from one reality to another, without ever getting anything done, and pushing Maggie, Mel, and you, further and further away.”

Taking her face gently in the cradle of his hands, Harry looked right at her. He wanted her to know this was no lie to comfort her, but only the truth.

“I promise you, this is no dream or spell, Macy. This is the magic even normal mortals can do.”

“What’s that?”, she asked with a small, teasing smile but watery eyes that betrayed that she was as scared as he was.

“Falling in love.”

“Is that what we’re doing?”

“I think so.”

“Me too.”

“Good. I’d hate to fall alone.”

She moved a hand to grip one of his.

“Never. I wouldn’t let you.”

Harry leaned, pressing his forehead gently to hers, their eyes sliding closed, hands and arms holding each other closer, their breathing almost in sync. For a long moment, neither moved. Neither spoke.

“We can tell them in a couple weeks.”, Macy offered.

“Maggie will probably figure it out before then.”

“She doesn’t get boundaries.”, Macy teased.

“Mel will roll her eyes at us.”

“I don’t care.”

“Me either.”, he teased before moving to press a short, sweet kiss to the tip of her nose before looking into her eyes again. Dear Elders, did he love her eyes.

“Would it be alright if I stayed a while?”, he asked.

“I wouldn’t mind. I got a new book a couple days ago.”

“So did I.”

“Go get yours, I’ll go make some tea. We’ll meet back here.”

He smiled, stepping back to use his teleporting.

“Aye-aye.”, he teased before evaporating from view. Macy smiled, gently worrying her lower lip between her teeth. Harry had kissed her. She confessed her feelings and he didn’t shoot her down, teleport to lower Batswana, or run screaming. He shared that he felt the same and then…he kissed her. Macy wanted to do a leaping dance down the hall and stairs to the kitchen, but restrained herself with a couple deep breaths. Hopefully, neither Maggie or Mel would pick up on the change in her mood just yet. She wanted to have just a little time with Harry first, before it became a whole family thing.

“Tea. Right.”, Macy said as she shook her head, the smile not quite dissipating. Tonight, she would spend some quality time with a book, some tea, and Harry. Her confession, scary as it had been, could not have turned out better for her. And tonight was not the end, and in a couple weeks, they could tell her sisters. Maggie would cheer them on, Macy was sure. Especially after the shared time in Tartarus. Mel would worry more than Maggie and be less showy about her support, but owing to her time with Jada and her growing respect and care for Harry, Macy was sure that Mel would be happy for them.

Once she had the tea, she came back up to her bedroom and smiled. Harry was already there, dressed now in his slippers, his pinstriped pale blue sleepsuit, his navy colored robe, and a thick book in hand as he smiled up at her. Yes, her night could not have gone better.


End file.
